NYCFC Led By Newcomers And Villa To Home Opener Win

New York City Football Club had a big day in their home opener, led by a star, David Villa, who has been here from Day One of the franchise, and newcomers Maxi Moralez, Rodney Wallace, and Sean Johnson.

NYCFC beat DC United 4-0 on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

It didn’t take long for NYCFC to get on the board, as Rodney Wallace tipped in a rebound off the post of a rocket from Jack Harrison to give them the lead in the eighth minute.

Wallace wasn’t done, as he set up David Villa for a header in front of the net to make it 2-0 in the 28th minute.

In the 39th, it was Villa, coming down the center of the field, who dropped a nifty pass to Moralez, a new acquisition from Argentina, who buried it to make it 3-0 NYCFC.

Villa scored his second of the game in the 75th minute, set up by Moralez, to make it 4-0. Villa has now scored in all three NYCFC home openers, and scored two goals twice.

Villa said of playing with Moralez and his understanding with one another, “He is great, his quality, he creates space in front of goal. For me its great to have him behind me because hes a great player and gives me chances as well as the team”

NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson, acquired from the Chicago Fire in the offseason, earned his first shutout with the club.

New York City FC Head Coach, Patrick Vieira said of theteam’s 3-0 lead at halftime and the overall performance, “It was a really good team effort. From the first minute, the team worked really hard, and this is a really good start for playing our game at home. Last year, we struggled at home. It was important for us to try to win our first home game and we did it today in a really, really good way.”

Wallace said of the 3-0 lead heading into halftime, “It felt good, but we didn’t let up and we came into the locker room knowing we had 45 to 50 minutes to play and make sure we didn’t give up a goal.

Vieira said of the new players, Wallace, Johnson, and Moralez playing well, “Yeah, I think it was important for us to improve our team and that’s why we got those players. I think we knew about their talent, and when the team performs like they did today it’s easier for the players to express their talent. Rodney had a really good game. Knowing that he didn’t play a lot of football in the past few months, he is not 100 percent fit, but he was a very important player for us. Shawn was really calm, really composed. He made an important save at the right time. Today, every decision that he made was a good one.”

This was a big improvement over NYCFC’s opener in Orlando a week ago, a 1-0 loss to their old coach, Jason Kreis.

Villa said of the importance of Sunday’s victory, “It’s very important, it’s always important to win, especially with a result like this. It’s not easy to win with such a large margin in the MLS, the playing level is very even but we are just getting started so we have to continue doing things well. We have a tough week up ahead especially with the climate in order to prepare and try to capture all three points on Saturday (against Montreal at Yankee Stadium).”